Our woman of the week is the living proof that women really are SUPER as the all rounder/teacher/mother lives her day to day life doing pretty much everything…how she finds the time, I don’t know.
Gemma Blasse is a 38 year old artist, baker, award winning poet and cool mom of a teenage daughter but her main passion is for children which is why she has been in the teaching profession since the age of 17 at the Canon Laurie Anglican Primary School.
Blasse says; “I love children and working with them otherwise I would have left that profession a long time ago if I didn’t”
She has taught grades three to grade five. Blasse also taught Home Economics to children of grade six but perhaps most impressive was her four years teaching children with special needs.
The quiet and reserved teacher says she loves nothing more than to spend time with her extremely close knit family and the idea of unity and togetherness is her comfort.
However, one would be terribly mistaken if they thought that her quiet reservation was a weakness as Blasse has zero toleration for disrespectful persons who don’t value or consider other people’s individuality.
Admittedly, Blasse reveals that she got into the profession simply as a means of employment. She says her new position came as a surprise and she was unprepared but she quickly adjusted to her new life and grew to almost instantly love what she did.
The one thing she finds amazing is the difference in students when she started and the ones of today: “The children have changed over the years. The children I came in to teaching knowing were children who were dedicated…they did their homework and they loved getting their A’s and stars, the children now, you practically have to put everything down in their heads. You have to teach them how to do everything…how to study, what to study, when to study, do the spellings for them, it’s a real change.
Blasse says she has unwittingly married her roles of motherhood to her job as a teacher and although she didn’t want to, she just always found it difficult to separate the two aspects of her life.
On the other hand, she says it has really worked to both the benefit of herself and her daughter: “It’s a 24 hour job. Even when I’m home I’m thinking of what to do with certain children. I’ve asked my daughter for advice and suggestions for what I should do to get through to the children from her perspective. It’s also great having her around because she helps me whilst correcting papers etc. She’s the perfect assistant.”
One interesting thing about Blasse that not too many might know is that although reserved, she is a big child at heart. Blasse says this is a trait that her students absolutely love about her.
During the interview, her daughter Vitanee chimed in and said: “There are times when she (her mother) would just sit and play with my toes or pinch me or start talking in funny voices and accents and everyone would look at her like, ‘Gemma are you ok? Are you sure you are not on something?’ But at the end of the day, it’s just the child in her.”
